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2006 – Anamanaguchi – Power supply

Anamanaguchi. Like a lot of music, this was something I found through complete happenstance. I was listening to a Podcast (Games Radar’s Talk Radar, to be specific). They used the song Helix Nebula as the intro to their podcast (and still do). I was instantly transported to a place that sounded like my childhood. And I was instantly happy. The song is amazingly well crafted, upbeat, entertaining, and uniqe. A lot of care goes in to what they’re doing, and the best part is: you can tell they’re doing it because they love it. They are among the best at what they do.

Anamanaguchi is a chiptune band. Which means their music comes from a video game system. In particular, they use actual NES hardware, generate some squarewaves, and rock your face off, occasionally bringing other instruments in to the mix. Songs like Helix Nebula and Fast Turtle are some of the happiest sounding tracks I’ve heard in years, and repeatedly put a smile on my face. I think I spent nearly three hours listening to the song Fast Turtle on a loop at one point.

If you don’t believe me that music coming out of a Nintendo will entertain you, I challenge you to listen to it and tell me different. Because you can, the band made their 2006 album a totally free download on the chiptune dedicated website 8bitPeoples.com. Every time I begin to play Anamanaguchi songs for someone, their immediate response is “oh, wow, that’s cool.” Then, after they hear more of the song, it escalates to “and really good!” So go download Power Supply and come back here and tell me that you’re glad you heard it. You’re welcome.

If you really liked Power Supply, you can listen to all of the songs from their 2009 album Dawn Metropolis for free (the album’s website is like a giant interactive music video for every track!), buy that album, and even download MORE free tracks all from the band’s website.

Anamanaguchi loves what they do, they love pumping up their crowds, they love getting the energy back from their audience. Although I’m pre-writing most of this post, at the time this will be published I will have literally seen Anamanaguchi play in Rochester, NY not 12 hours ago. I’m hoping they make my face hurt from smiling for so long, and I have no reason to believe they won’t. I’ll update the post with some media, if I get anything good!